The company behind the giant American Funds mutual-fund family is seeking regulatory approval to offer actively managed exchange-traded funds

The SEC has yet to approve actively managed ETFs

But ETFs resembling funds such American Funds Growth Fund of America and American Funds EuroPacific Growth aren’t likely to appear any time soon.

Like a number of other stock-picking companies, the American Funds’ manager, Los Angeles-based Capital Research & Management, has filed for Securities and Exchange Commission clearance to offer a type of ETF that the regulators haven’t yet approved. These are so-called nontransparent ETFs, which, unlike most ETFs, won’t disclose their holdings each day.

The cloaked nature of these ETFs appeals to portfolio managers who are concerned about tipping their hand to other market participants about what they are buying and selling. These ETFs, like traditional mutual funds, would disclose their holdings periodically.

The first Capital Research ETF would invest primarily in large and medium-sized U.S. stocks, seeking growth of capital and, secondarily, income, the filing says. The company has been working to regain momentum for its actively managed stock funds in light of the boom in indexing and also following some disappointing performance in the bear market.

The Capital Research ETF filing is “a real sea-change moment” for the fund industry, as types of funds and methods of distributing them evolve, says Dave Nadig, chief investment officer at research firm ETF.com. He notes that Capital Research garnered much of its fund assets through sales by commission-paid brokers.

In recent years, many of those brokers and other financial advisers have switched to charging clients fees, while using fund shares on which the sales commissions, or “loads,” are waived. But a series of Capital Research ETFs would make the firms’ offerings accessible to self-directed investors, as well as to advisers who prefer ETFs to traditional funds.

Capital Research manages eight of the 20 largest traditional mutual funds, according to ETF.com. Growth Fund of America is the largest actively managed stock fund, with a recent $143 billion in assets.

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Kevin Clifford, chairman and president of American Funds, said Capital Research is completely committed to active management and has significant concerns about running an active portfolio in a standard ETF with full transparency. While the firm has filed for regulatory clearance to offer nontransparent ETFs, he said, “We have not decided anything, we are not committed to anything.”

He said ETF offerings could potentially be just another share class of the American Funds. That is the approach used by Vanguard Group and on which the Malvern, Pa., firm holds a patent. Asked if Capital Research had been in contact with Vanguard about a licensing arrangement, he said, “We have talked to a wide range of folks” about various designs.

--write to Karen.Damato@wsj.com

This article originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal's Total Return blog